


Down By The River

by irlenolacroix



Category: Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, M/M, Murder Mystery, See No Evil AU, also its not upfront gay just implied, also the description of a brutalized corpse is. pretty graphic. so just be aware, not necessarily graphic violence as much as graphic descriptions of a dead body, will this just be a one shot? will there be more chapters? who knows
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:53:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23488639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irlenolacroix/pseuds/irlenolacroix
Summary: Written for the See No Evil AU, from kiingcorobo's tumblr.Kamal is a detective on a particularly brutal murder case with a somewhat eccentric new partner--Boris Habit, a former dentist who now works as a forensic odontologist with Kamal's precinct. Boris is just a man with a passion for teeth and justice, but as it turns out, he may have a secret or two that he's keeping.
Relationships: Kamal Bora/Dr. Boris Habit
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	1. Notes

Kamal cleared his throat, and Boris looked across the table to see his partner staring at him. “Are we going to talk the case, or are you going to look out the window all day?”

Boris huffed, but it was mostly playful. “I was waiting for you to bring it up.”

“It…  _ is _ what we came here to talk about, Habit.”

“I know.” Boris shrugged slightly, but adjusted himself in the booth that was just too small to comfortably fit his large frame so he was facing Kamal. “So let’s talk.” He smiled then, a lopsided, closed-mouth smile. He could have sworn Kamal almost smiled back.

“Right.” Kamal took a sip from his coffee (which, to Boris, looked so black that he could almost taste the sickening bitterness) and glanced at the small stack of notes he’d brought with him. “They’ll have the scene cleared for us in an hour, but I brought some notes to go over. Just to keep us both refreshed on the details.”

“No photographs?”

“Well, I mean, not over breakfast, that’s for damn sure,” Kamal replied. “I mean… I guess as a detective I’ve gotten kind of used to it, but I still don’t have the strongest stomach, especially when it comes to…” He shuddered. “Case like this, y’know. Mouth stuff.”

Boris nodded. “Mouth stuff,” he repeated.

Kamal was looking through the notes now, his eyes scanning across the pages. “Mm…” he hummed. “So the reason we’re calling you in is because nobody can identify the guy. Older dude, mid-seventies, found by the side of a river by a couple of hunters…” He grimaced. “Beaten beyond recognition, broken jaw, smashed skull, bite marks on the arms and torso, and…” He trailed off, swallowing. “God, maybe I shoulda just brought the pictures…”

Boris kept quiet for a moment, as if hesitating. “Tell me,” he eventually coaxed, though his eyes were on his half-eaten croissant instead of Kamal.

“Blech,” Kamal said, disgusted. “Um… All of the guy’s teeth were removed. Lucky for us, though, they’re still around… Lodged in the back of the guy’s throat. Looks like they weren’t put in there until after he died, but…” He gagged. “Mm, body’s been there for at least a week so there’s some significant decay, no missing person’s cases have been filed that match his description, so…” He bit his lower lip and looked up at Boris. “That’s where you come in.”

Boris was only halfway listening, but he looked at Kamal when he was addressed. “For the teeth?”

“And the bite marks,” Kamal said. “But… yeah. Mostly the teeth.”

Boris hummed and stared into his glass of water. He’d never been one to be bothered by gore or anything of the sort, but he still felt queasy. Something inside him was churning.

Kamal, too, was quiet for a while before making an exaggerated gagging sound and turning the notes over. “Guess I shouldn’t have taken you out to breakfast, huh…” He laughed a little at that, a humorless laugh that he was trying to lighten. Boris smiled again in response, that same lopsided smile, but far less bright.

“Perhaps some other time…” he said. “When we don’t have a body to identify in an hour.”

The implications caught them both a little off-guard. Kamal cleared his throat, and Boris found that the churning in his stomach began to feel more like butterflies. Neither said anything, though. Kamal just took another sip of his midnight-colored coffee and looked up at his companion. “You wanna… get goin’ a little early? Hop in the car and just take the scenic route?”

Boris took a while to respond, but the response was a nod and a murmured “That sounds lovely.”

The car was a bit too small for Boris, too. He minded this less than the booth, though. Kamal started up the car, and Boris leaned his head against the window, tracking pine trees and grey squirrels with his gaze. He could pretend, for an hour at least, that he didn’t smell blood, that he didn’t wonder what exactly it was that he’d done in the hazy fog of darkness and rage. He’d gotten awfully good at pretending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> read about the see no evil au on kiingcorobo's tumblr it is very good!!! i will probably write more for it, this took me like 30 min and its very short but i couldnt NOT contribute to this fucken amazing au
> 
> my tumblr is winemomparker, thank you very much for reading!


	2. Records

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's more to police records and autopsy reports than meets the eye.
> 
> CW for mentions of brutalization of a corpse, descriptions of murder, deadnaming, and a brief allusion to alcoholism.

The autopsy report listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the skull. No murder weapon found at the scene, just traces of blood on nearby bits of stone. There had been significant torture before the actual killing, though. Bites on the arms and torso were premortem. Removal of the teeth was premortem. Breaking of the left leg was premortem.

Boris already knew all of this.

“It’s a wonder nobody heard the guy scream,” the coroner had said. Boris had only nodded in agreement. It was indeed a wonder.

The teeth had been removed from his throat and placed in a plastic baggie for Boris to examine. He almost wondered if he could get away with giving a false identity.

That was too far, though. Too far even for him.

“Vladislav Kandinsky,” he said to Kamal, and Kamal looked up at him from his desk with a puzzled expression.

“What?”

“The body. I identified it.”

Kamal hummed as he realized what Boris was talking about. “Oh! Wow, that was… That was pretty quick. Glad to have a lead, though, I guess.” He leaned against the back of his chair as Boris sat in the chair opposite him. “Vladislav Kandinsky, huh… Hell of a name, don’t you think?”

Boris hummed in acknowledgement. “He was a Russian immigrant,” he said, before quickly following it up with a muttered “It said so on his records”.

Kamal reached out and Boris handed him the file containing the autopsy report. “Ah, what else did it say?”

“You have the report.”

“No, I mean in the records.”

“I included them.”

Kamal went quiet and flipped through the file to confirm. “Huh,” he said. “Very proactive. Thank you, Dr. Habit.”

“You can call me Boris.”

“...Thank you, Boris.”

Something inside Boris warmed up a little at Kamal using his first name. “Of course.”

Kamal set about looking through the records, his head tipped to one side. “Why were these so readily available? Usually it takes longer to get them.”

Boris reached across the desk and pointed. “Previous arrest,” he said softly. “Charges of felony embezzlement and resisting arrest, if I remember correctly.”  _ I definitely remember correctly, he used that money to buy alcohol. _

Kamal looked at the column Boris had pointed to. “Dunno why they kept around a file with twenty-six year old charges…” he muttered, but didn’t say anything more on the matter. “Let’s see if the guy’s got any family we could contact…”

“I think he was married,” Boris said.  _ Was. _

Kamal flipped the page and, after a few moments, nodded. “Married to Nadine Kandinskaya until her death in 1988… Shit,” he swore under his breath. “And… one daughter, born in ‘57.” He raised an eyebrow at that. “Katerina Kandinskaya… She’d only be thirty-seven now, I bet she’s still around.” He looked up from the file to look at Boris. “Well, at least we have a starting point… Um, Boris?”

Boris felt sick. His eyes were trained across the room, not really focused on anything in particular but wandering in the space between a bulletin board and a decorative plant. “...I’m fine,” he said, slowly bringing himself back to reality as he looked at Kamal. “Sorry, I’m… Not feeling very well today.”

For a long moment Kamal was silent. He then shook his head slightly and reached out to pat Boris’s hand. “Go home and get some rest, big guy. It’s gettin’ late, anyhow. I’ll call you and tell you what I find in the morning.”

Boris was stiff, too stiff to move, both because of the disgust he felt at the memories and hearing his old name and because of the contact with Kamal rendering him a little bit fluttery inside. But he managed to nod, clear his throat, and choke out, “I will. Okay. Thank you, Detective Bora.”

Kamal smiled a little half-smile and shook his head. “Kamal.”

After a short silence, Boris managed a lopsided smile in return. “Kamal,” he repeated.

When Boris went home, he didn’t get any sleep, nor did he continue investigating. He went into his bedroom, sat down, and cried. His cat came over and he held her, crying into her fur, and he thought of what he had done, and he thought of his father’s God, and he thought of blood in his mouth. He thought of breaking his father’s jaw. He wondered, indeed, how nobody had heard him scream. He wondered why his father hadn’t screamed at all.

He wondered when Kamal would figure out that he wouldn’t be finding Katerina Kandinskaya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi read more about the see no evil au on @kiingcorobo's tumblr, it is very good and i am in love. also this fic will probably get a little bit horny in later chapters but like... mostly stay focused on murder. gay murder. yknow
> 
> (also if you've read my other fic, boris habit's 9-step guide to closure, one of these names will look a little.... familiar)
> 
> hmu at winemomparker on tumblr if you wanna chat, thank you sm for reading! <3

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Handcuff Hijinks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23516197) by [dr-habitual (Max_Mirphy)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Max_Mirphy/pseuds/dr-habitual)




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